This family was well known in Guildford and bought Guildford House in 1736 from the Childe family for £700.

A William Martyr was Mayor in 1545 and again in 1553.  Charles Martyr, born in 1587, married Catherine, daughter of Sir George More of Loseley and their son John Martyr was Mayor of Guildford in 1667, 1677, 1682 and 1692.  His great-grandson, John Martyr, bought Guildford House in 1726.  He was an Attorney and appears as a Magistrate on the list of subscribers to the Guildhall extension.

This family was in continuous occupation of the house for over a hundred years.  most of its male members were lawyers by profession and were known as 'the hereditary Town Clerks of Guildford' being associated with the firm of solicitors which managed the town's legal affairs.  It was to John Martyr that the Surrey antiquarian and historian, William Bray (1736-1832) was articled.

John Martyr's lease contained a full description of the property with its dwelling house, wash-house and brew-house with rooms above, a stables and a loft with a dovecote in the south-west corner of a walled garden which also had a summer or banqueting house, sometimes called a gazebo.  There was also property on the other side of the North Ditch (North Street) shown on the 1739 map of Guildford as 'Mr Martyr's Garden'.  Part of this land was sold in 1803 to the Society of Friends fro their meeting house.